I have only used the lopper, which works great. You just hook the branch and pull on the pulley. Takes a little time and strength, but much easier and safer than going up a ladder. Assembly is intuitive, which is good because the instructions are terrible, e.g. \"screw the connecting pole clockwise into the connecting pole.\" They don't even mention how to attach the lopper, but it's easy EXCEPT that you need to supply your own longish (1.5 inch maybe) screw, washers, and bolt (maybe 3/8th inch).